Several hundred li away from Qing Mao Mountain, out in the wilderness, far from any clan, a man by the na of Zuo Ming carried about his daily tasks.
Zuo Ming was a lone cultivator and possessed Rank 3 Middle Stage cultivation. While that was sufficient to survive in this world on one's own, it didn't an that it was easy.
Since procuring resources was difficult, he had to be careful with the kind of gu worms that he raised. Because of this, he had, out of necessity, beco a Strength Path cultivator, despite his greater proficiency when it ca to using tal Path gu worms during his earlier days.
Zuo Ming had not always been a lone cultivator. He had once belonged to a small but lively village until he had been forced into this situation after his village had been annihilated.
It was a tale as old as ti: two different clans occupied the sa mountain, and one of them faltered and was defeated by the other. Zuo Ming had only been Rank 2 at the ti, but he managed to escape with a small group of allies who had helped him survive until he had ended up getting to Rank 3.
He then had a falling out with these people, which is why he currently lived his life as it was currently.
'I wonder if it will rain again today?' he thought to himself.
Back when he had still been living in the village, he had enjoyed the rain as it would often provide a respite from the hot and humid weather that tended to linger where they used to live. This text is hosted at N0velFire.ɴet
Here, however, the rain only made life worse. The soil beca wet and slippery, making it hard for him to move. He did not have a proper Rank 3 movent-type gu worm and had to make do with a Rank 2. As such, there was a high probability of him becoming stuck in the mud while traveling with very few ways of getting himself out of that kind of situation.
There were all sorts of dangers that could get to him if he were trapped: giant frogs which could traverse the mud much more easily than he could; poisonous snakes which tended to bury under the soil and only ca out when it rained as the water filled their underground nests; certain plants which were poisonous and difficult to avoid if it beca muddy.
If it only rained for a short while, it was not much of an issue. However, if it rained for too long, he would have to make his move anyway.
The only alternative was to starve, both for him and his gu worms. Thankfully, the clouds above passed away soon enough with only the lightest drizzle, and he was able to safely wander outside.
Day-to-day life was difficult and oftentis tedious.
Soone like Fang Yuan would have had no problem living this way, but the majority of people would have found the isolation nearly unbearable.
Zuo Ming had considered joining another clan as an external elder many tis, but that pathway was now cut off from him because of incidents in his past.
He found a herd of goats nearby. There was a Hundred Beast King among them, which glared at him even from a distance; likely the effect of so kind of investigative gu.
However, a Hundred Beast King was of little threat to him. There probably was a Thousand Beast King sowhere, but this section of the flock seed to have separated from the main herd.
Whether it was wild beasts or humans, both had imnse difficulty surviving in the wilderness.
Zuo Ming quickly activated his only Rank 3 gu worm, Tortoise Armor Gu. He had managed to win it after a long and hard battle with a Thousand Beast King giant tortoise. It fed upon tortoise at, and there was a colony nearby which would usually visit a nearby lake once a month, which provided the adequate food needed for the gu. He needed a defensive Gu worm to use his strength properly without shattering his bones on impact.
While the Hundred Beast King had noticed him, it had still not alerted all of the flock in ti.
He grabbed a goat from the periphery and snapped its neck in a single blow before the rest of the herd could properly react.
He was already dragging his kill away by the ti that they could mount so kind of response.
He had no intention of fighting all of them; he only needed to fill his stomach.
By the ti a few goats were chasing after him, he was already long gone. While goats were very good at traversing the nearby mountains, they had difficulty traversing the loose soil which was scattered around where Zuo Ming lived.
Just as he thought he had enough at for the next couple of weeks, disaster struck him on the way back to his cave.
If it weren't for his Rank 2 investigative gu worm, he wouldn't have been able to notice it at all and may have very well died on the spot.
A shadow leaped out from the nearby greenery: a Dark Panther King, the equivalent of a Thousand Beast King!
Dark Panthers were known to be quite violent and very good fighters unlike the goats which tended to be less ferocious. It would not be as easy to get away from it as with the goats.
Its entire body was as black as night and was as a matter of fact covered in a small amount of Dark Path dao marks. Normally it would only venture out at night, but sothing, likely hunger - had motivated it to stay up late.
Its irises were entirely black, but were speckled with small spots like stars. One could not let this deceive them however, as its eyesight was perfectly fine.
The Dark Panther King wanted the kill that Zuo Ming was dragging along, and Zuo Ming imdiately had to make a choice.
He either could try to fight the panther off, or he could abandon his al.
He chose to do the latter, abandoning the carcass he was dragging along and running in the opposite direction.
He was not confident enough in fighting this Thousand Beast King, and he figured that he would be able to find food so other day. It was not worth the risk.
The goats might've backtracked a bit after what he had pulled today, but they were likely still in the sa vicinity and he could probably still find them even later.
The panther did not let him go, chasing after him even as he abandoned his kill. He could almost feel its hot breath as he sprinted for his life and kept his defensive gu worm active.
However, after a hundred paces, it turned around, realizing that it couldn't get both things that it wanted at once, and seized the carcass that Zuo Ming had been dragging along before anything else could get to it.
After all, it was not the only hunter in this area. There was a reason why it was so desperately looking for food. If it chased too far after him, soone else might snatch up what it had very rightfully stolen.
It retrieved the goat and then took it away, likely to its lair in order to consu later.
And so, Zuo Ming was left to walk back ho empty-handed.
User Comments
0 comments from readers